🚀 go-pugleaf

Mark Sutton wrote:
> 
> The PC enjoyed it's success for exactly the same reason.  IBM let any
> manufacturer copy the architecture FOR FREE.  Had either Apple or Comadore
> (Manufacturer of the Amiga) done the same thing, instead of leaving
> their architecture proprietary, one of those architectures may very well
> have emerged as the standard.
Wrong.  IBM did not let any one copy the the PC for free.  The BIOS had to be 
reverse engineered.  The OS was available form Microsoft and others.
> 
> IBM failed to learn from this, however.  Remember a few years ago, they
> came out with the Microchannel based PS/2's and kept the architecture
> proprietary.  The PS/2 was a thundering failure in the marketplace.
The PS/2 failed because IBM tried to force clone makers to pay back royalties on 
PC clones before they could license the Micro Channel Architecture.
> 
> Sony and Phillips, co-inventors of the compact disk, made the CD technology
> openly available FOR FREE.  As a result, it is now the standard medium
> for distribution of recorded music AND for distribution of commercial
> computer software.  Had Sony and/or Phillips kept this technology proprietary,
> I am certain that the technology would have petered out by 1985 or 86 and
> few of us would even remember it today.
> 
> Now as a closing thought:  The technology behind Linux is available to anyone
> FOR FREE...  Makes you wonder.  It's future may be bright indeed!
> 
> --
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> |  Mark Sutton                 | mailto:mark....@laitram.com        |
> |  The Laitram Corporation     | http://www.gnofn.org/~marksu/         |
> |  New Orleans, Louisiana      |                                       |
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